Understanding Doctors Performance

Understanding Doctors’ Performance addresses possible reasons why doctors under-perform, covering specific areas such as education and training, physical and mental health, workload, personality, organisational culture, drug and alcohol misuse, and cognitive impairment. It draws together evidence and describes the factors (apart from clinical competence) that adversely affect performance and how they can be prevented, identified, assessed and addressed. This practical and easy to read book is invaluable for NHS managers, medical directors, chief executives and board members, along with directors of human resources in healthcare and healthcare professionals interested in the assessment of performance or the management of underperformance.

For the first time in a single core textbook, the Association for the Study of Medical Education presents a complete and authoritative guide to medical education. Written by leading experts in the field, Understanding Medical Education provides a comprehensive resource of the theoretical and academic bases to modern medical education practice. This accessible and timely reference is designed to meet the needs of all those working in medical education from undergraduate education through postgraduate training to continuing professional development. As well as providing practical guidance for clinicians, teachers and researchers, Understanding Medical Education will prove an invaluable resource to those studying at certificate, diploma or masters level and a first ‘port-of-call’ for anyone engaged in medical education as an academic discipline. Exploring medical education in all its diversity and containing all you need in one place, Understanding Medical Education is the ideal reference not only for medical educators, but for anyone involved in the development of healthcare professionals, in whatever discipline wherever they are in the world. An on-line edition of the complete book, together with individual chapter downloads, are available at www.wileymedicaleducation.com Understanding Medical Education has been brought together and edited by Professor Tim Swanwick, Director of Professional Development in the London Deanery, Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Education and Visiting Professor of Medical Education at the University of Bedfordshire.

Patients who are confident of physicians' intellectual and technical abilities are sometimes not convinced of their professional behavior. Systemic and anecdotal cases of physician misconduct, conflict of interest, and self-interest abound. Many have even come to mistrust physicians as patient advocates. How can patients trust the intellectual and technical aspects of medical care, but not the professional? In order to enhance and promote professionalism in medicine, one should expect it, encourage it, and evaluate it. By measuring their own professional behavior, physicians can provide the kind of transparency with which they can regain the trust of patients and society.Not only patients, but also institutions which accredit organizations have demanded accountability of physicians in their professional behavior. While there has been much lament and a few strong proposals for improving professionalism, no single reliable and valid measure of the success of these proposals exists. This book is a theory-to-practice text focused on ways to evaluate professional behavior written by leaders in the field of medical education and assessment.

Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.

Providing a comprehensive and evidence-based reference guide for those who have a strong and scholarly interest in medical education, the Oxford Textbook of Medical Education contains everything the medical educator needs to know in order to deliver the knowledge, skills, and behaviour that doctors need. The book explicitly states what constitutes best practice and gives an account of the evidence base that corroborates this. Describing the theoretical educational principles that lay the foundations of best practice in medical education, the book gives readers a through grounding in all aspects of this discipline. Contributors to this book come from a variety of different backgrounds, disciplines and continents, producing a book that is truly original and international.

"This book presents theoretical and empirical research on the value of information technology in healthcare"--Provided by publisher.

This book guides you through the process, covering such essential steps as the movement toward physician performance management, the physician leader's role, conducting the review, integrating compensation and addressing physician behavior.